Read Online Shadow Zone by Iris Johansen, Roy Johansen - Free Book Online

wonderful creatures.”
    Hannah had to agree with her as she remembered how Pete and Susie had saved her life in the pod only a short time ago. She had run across many odd phenomena in her career on the sea, and she could accept that there was too much she still didn’t know to discount anything.
    And Melis knew worlds more than Hannah did about dolphins and was troubled. Dammit, she didn’t know what to do to help. Okay, skip the deep stuff and just rely on distraction.
    She took Melis’s arm. “Come on. Stop frowning. You may have found the mother lode. It’s a great way to end the expedition, and the guys deserve their celebration. So do we. Let’s go see if we can out-party them.”
    Customs Warehouse
Tenerife Airport
    Madre De Dios , he was curious about that box.
    Carlos Nelazar stared at the large box he’d ordered stored conveniently close to the ramp doors for pickup. What was in it that could be worth the bribe he’d been offered to ignore the theft of some scummy artifact from the depths of the sea?
    And was he a fool not to have demanded more? He had only a few more years before he retired from the Customs Department and got his pension. What if they found out he was involved in the theft?
    Maybe it wasn’t an artifact, maybe it was jewels or coins, and he could grab a few handfuls. Yes, it would be smarter to open the box and find out if he should ask for more money or grab a percentage on his own. Screw those bastards who’d told him not to examine it. He had a right to know. He checked his watch. Nine thirty. They weren’t supposed to pick up the box before ten.
    He lifted the crowbar. If he was quick, he’d be able to open, examine, and then nail the crate shut before anyone came to pick it up.
    He had the box open within five minutes. Excitement gripped him as he first glimpsed the gleam of the colored stones. Jewels, it must be jewels.
    Disappointment came over him. Only cheap crystals. No reason for anyone to be willing to pay such a high—
    Or was there? There was something there, something that was holding him, drawing him closer . . .
    “Pretty, aren’t they? Like drops of sunlight.”
    He went rigid and slowly looked over his shoulder.
    Relief surged through him. Only a woman, a pretty woman in a dark pantsuit, her hair in a tight chignon.
    “You should not be here,” he said sternly. “This is a restricted zone. Please leave.”
    Her gaze was still on the colored glass in the trellis. “I must have taken a wrong turn. Those corridors are so confusing. I’ll leave soon.”
    “Now.”
    She smiled sweetly and took a step nearer to him. “What were you looking at? You seemed to be so interested.” She stared eagerly down at the crystals. “Oh, yes, there seems to be a strange depth in those stones, isn’t there?” She stepped still closer. “Personally, I prefer emeralds or rubies, but I admit there’s a sort of mystique to—”
    Pain.
    Carlos doubled in agony as her needle-thin stiletto entered his heart.
    By nightfall, the topside deck of the Copernicus was packed with crew members from both it and Fair Winds, drinking, dancing, and watching the four-member amateur rock band led by Josh, Matthew, Kyle, and a bikini-clad blond research specialist whose only function was, as far as Hannah could tell, to look good while she shook a tambourine.
    Hannah turned away. The expedition was over, and she had gotten through it. Her first job without Conner. It was as difficult as she thought it would be, but working with Melis in addition to her usual team had been a good way to ease back into the groove. If only she had been able to finish what she had started.
    She heard footsteps behind her and caught a whiff of that familiar pipe tobacco.
    Ebersole.
    “You know . . . I’m not the bad guy here,” he said.
    She turned to see that he was holding a drink and wearing a tropical-print short-sleeved shirt. Very out of character for the buttoned-down executive with whom she had been